Gaskets are often used as a seal between mating mechanical components. One common application involves gasket placement between the engine block and cylinder head of an internal combustion engine. Cylinder head gaskets typically extend around cylinder bores to provide a combustion seal, maintaining the high temperature gases of combustion within the cylinder bores. Simultaneously, the gaskets also seal fluid flow openings such as coolant and oil openings to prevent undesirable mixing.
To provide improved sealing of rigid gaskets, a resilient material is sometimes applied to a gasket carrier plate. The resilient material can be applied to the gasket to form a covering layer. It may also be in the form of beads of material surrounding the outer perimeter of the gasket and any individual gasket openings such as around a cylinder head opening.
A number of methods are known for applying the resilient material to the gasket carrier plate. These methods include: silk screening (also called screen printing) and high temperature, high pressure injection molding.
After the resilient material is applied to the gasket, it must be cured. The curing process can be accomplished by heating. Known methods of heating include the use of an oven or the high temperature environment of a conventional injection molding machine. It is also known to cure certain types of gasket coatings using ultraviolet radiation. Curing solidifies the resilient material and provides greater adhesion of the coating to the gasket core.
However, the known methods of applying resilient material to a gasket carrier plate are inefficient in terms of prototype development, production costs, and production time. Further, the use of high temperature environments may cause unwanted gasket deformation as well as the generation of pollutants such as solvent fumes.